Three young siblings have been taken into temporary care in eastern China after their mother abandoned them in the street, local media reported.

The two boys, aged seven and five, and their two-year-old sister were taken to a police station in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, after being spotted by members of the public wandering the streets about 2am on Friday, City Express reported on Sunday.

After talking to the children, police discovered that their father, a migrant worker from central China’s Henan province, had worked at a laundry firm in the city, the report said.

The boss of the company said he had been visited by the child’s mother a few days earlier and told her that her husband had left several months ago. He did not know where either of the parents were but was able to provide police with phone numbers for both of them, the report said.

Although the number for the father was out of service, police were able to call the mother, who told them that she was at a bus station and that she would wait there until they took her children to her. However, when police arrived at the station, the mother had gone and her phone was switched off, the report said.

In the earlier conversation, the mother told police that she had travelled from Henan to find her husband but had become frustrated when she was told he had disappeared. She was quoted as saying that she abandoned the children as a way to make their father face up to his responsibilities, as she believed he was still nearby and was simply trying to avoid her.